Chinese government returns passport to Ai Weiwei

Last Wednesday, artist Ai Weiwei Instagrammed a picture of himself holding his Chinese passport, returned to him four years after it was confiscated by the Chinese government. The document had been taken by the government in 2011, the government claiming that Ai was a tax evader. Supporters said it was because he had been critical of the government.

The For-Site Foundation, which conceived of and curated “@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz,” issued its own announcement of the news. The foundation is working on a movie about “Yours Truly,” a work in the exhibition that inspired 90,000 visitors to write postcards to prisoners incarcerated for their political beliefs. Some of the prisoners received the cards and wrote back.

For-Site wants to film interviews with prisoners as far away as Egypt, India and Bahrain, and is seeking donations of frequent-flier miles for the filmmakers.

And more about that island in the bay: I was an eavesdropper the other day at Coit Tower when a group of San Francisco hotel concierges held one of their regular meetings, in a tent on the small grassy knoll behind the tower. These sessions are social, but they’re also occasions for the concierges, whose job includes the dispensing of advice to tourists in need of local wisdom, to learn more about specific attractions to which they direct visitors.

Denise Rasmussen, director of sales and marketing at Alcatraz Cruises — owned by a firm that ferries visitors to the Statue of Liberty, too, she said — talked about the ticketing procedure and planned changes, which will have to be made with the approval of the National Park Service.

Trips to the island — just over 6,000 a day in the summer — are so sought after, she said, that scalpers have been reaping unfair profits. She cited a case where five boat tickets that should have cost $150 went for $750. The company is aiming to put a new system in place, she said, “to avoid scalpers ... companies sitting on the website and grabbing all the tickets.”

There were many questions from the concierges, one of whom said she spent most of her day on the phone trying to get through to buy tickets. “We want to make more availability,” said Rasmussen, “and better service.”

“My best day,” said a concierge who’s been besieged, “is when it’s closed.”

(The National Park Service’s Alexandra Picavet said the next day that the feds require concessionaires to try to root out scalping.)

P.S.: I was at Coit Tower at the invitation of Ken Maley, Pioneer Park Project member who produced the event to inform concierges about the history of the park. At Maley’s invitation, I took a brief spin around the murals with Davy Crockett, who leads tours there. I hadn’t been there since the murals were restored, and Crockett had lots of dish:

The shape of the tower had nothing to do with Lillie Coit or Italy. “It was the cheapest generic 1930s Art Deco” structure that could be built, said Crockett. One section of three panels on the first floor — which gave equal weight to capitalism, the New Deal and communism — was painted over. The project was the country’s first WPA art; San Francisco’s Rincon Annex murals are the last WPA art ever made in the country. At least a few of the artists hated each other, with animosity they expressed by painting unflattering portraits of their enemies into the murals, and no one in any mural is smiling.

Meanwhile, tourists filled the elevator and bustled into the gift shop, where the wares — in keeping with the era and in keeping with the hipster rage — include a case full of Goorin Bros. fedoras. Smart.

For the 40th anniversary of its founding, the comedy troupe Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre performs its last-ever concert at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Aug. 29. “If the Grateful Dead can end their career after 50 years, there’s no reason we can’t stop live performances together at 40,” says Merle Kessler. The troupe was born 10 years too late for the Summer of Love, he said, “so the math sort of works.”